Troy Horse

Detail of the Mikonos vessel (Archeological Museum of Mikonos, Greece), centuryVIIa. C. This is one of the oldest performances of the Trojan horse.

The Trojan horse was a device in the shape of a huge wooden horse that is mentioned in the history of the Trojan War and that according to this story was used by the Achaeans as a strategy to enter in the fortified city of Troy. Taken by the Trojans as a sign of their victory, the horse was led inside the gigantic walls, unaware that several enemy soldiers were hidden inside. During the night, the warriors dismounted, killed the sentinels, and opened the city gates to allow the entry of the Achaean army, causing the final fall of Troy. The oldest source that mentions the Trojan horse, albeit briefly, is Homer's Odyssey. Subsequently, other authors offered more extensive accounts of the myth, among which the narration that includes the Aeneid of Virgil stands out.

The Trojan horse is generally considered a mythical creation, but it has also been debated whether it could really have existed and was a war machine transfixed by chroniclers' fantasy. Either way, it proved to be a fertile motif both literary and artistic, and since ancient times it has been reproduced in countless poems, novels, paintings, sculptures, monuments, films, and other media, including cartoons and toys. Likewise, in recent times several hypothetical reconstructions of the horse have been made. In addition to this, it has given rise to two idiomatic expressions: "Trojan horse"; that is to say, a destructive deception, and "Greek present", something conceived as apparently pleasant but with serious consequences.

Context

The Trojan fire (Francisco Collantes).

The Trojan War was first described in the Homeric poems and has since been retold by other authors, ancient and modern, who have introduced variations and expanded the story, but the summary of the horse episode is as follows:

The war had lasted for more than nine years when the greatest Greek warrior, Achilles, had been killed in combat. Despite having fulfilled the conditions imposed by the oracles for the capture of the city—bringing in Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, bringing back the bones of Pelops, and stealing the Palladium—the Greeks were unable to break through the walls of Troy.

In this situation, the soothsayer Calchas observed a dove pursued by a hawk. The dove took refuge in a crevice and the hawk remained near the hole, but could not catch the dove. The hawk then decided to pretend to withdraw and hid out of sight of the dove, who slowly poked its head in to make sure that the hunter had given up, but then the hawk came out of hiding and finished the hunt. After narrating this vision, Calchas deduced that they should not continue trying to storm the walls of Troy by force, but would have to devise a stratagem to take the city. After that, Odysseus conceived the plan to build a horse and hide inside the best warriors. In other versions, the plan was instigated by Athena and there is also a tradition that Prilis, a soothsayer from the island of Lesbos, son of Hermes, prophesied that Troy could only be taken with the help of a wooden horse.

Under the instructions of Odysseus or Athena, the horse was built by Epeus the Phocidian, the best carpenter in the camp. He had a hidden hatch on his right flank and on his left was engraved the phrase: "In the grateful hope of a safe return to their homes after an absence of nine years, the Greeks dedicate this offering to Athena." The Trojans, great believers in the gods, fell for the deception. They accepted it to offer it to the gods, unaware that it was a ploy by the Greeks to breach their walls since a select group of soldiers were hiding inside. The horse was of such size that the Trojans had to break down part of the walls of their city. Once the horse was brought into Troy, while the Trojans were celebrating their defeat, the soldiers hidden in it opened the gates of the city, after which the invading force entered and destroyed it.

Literary sources

The Trojan horse is mentioned for the first time in several passages of Homer's Odyssey. One of the times it happens in the palace of Menelaus, who offers a wedding banquet for his son and his daughter, who were getting married at the same time. In the middle of the party, Telemachus arrives, who was looking for news of his father and takes a seat next to Menelaus, accompanied by Pisistratus. Subsequently, he enters the Helena room. The group, saddened, begins to remember the Trojan War, when Helena speaks up and tells her of her memories of it. Then Menelaus confirms what she had said, speaking of the horse:

Yes, woman, you've told him very accurately. I knew the way of thinking and feeling of many heroes, for I have traveled much of the earth: but my eyes could never give with a man who had the heart of Odysseus, of patient spirit, What did he not do and suffered that strong man on the rotten wooden horse, whose interior we occupied the best argives to bring to the Trojans the butchery and death! You came in person—because you had to be moved by some numen who longed to give glory to the Trojans—and Deífobo followed you, like the gods. Three times you walked around the hollow ambush by touching it and calling for its name the bravest dánaos and, in doing so, you remed the voice of the wives of each of the argivos.

Homer, Odyssey IV, 265-290.

In another passage, Odysseus asks the aedus Demodocus to narrate the story of Epeus's horse created with the help of Athena. The aedus recounted the episode from the point at which some Argives had set fire to their tents and departed on their ships, while others, including Odysseus, waited hidden inside the horse. The Trojans took the horse into their fortress, where it remained while they decided what to do with it. Some wanted to destroy it; others wanted to take it to the top of the citadel and throw it on the rocks, while others preferred to keep it as an offering to the gods. Opting for the latter alternative, they sealed their fate:

-Demodoco! I praise you more than any other mortal, for they must have taught you the Musa, the daughter of Zeus, or the Apollo himself, to judge by how first and foremost you sing the chance of the aqueos and everything they did, suffered and endured as if you had seen him or heard him refer to one of them. But, ea, he passes to another matter and sings as the wooden horse built by Epeo was arranged with the help of Athena; misleading machine that the Divine Odysseus led to the acropolis, after filling it with the warriors who ruined Troy. If this is to be reckoned, I will tell all men that a benevolent deity granted you the divine chant.

Thus he spoke and the aedo, moved by divine impulse, intonated a song whose beginning was that the argivos went to the sea in their ships of many banks, after having set fire to the camp, while some were already with the Odysseum celebrity in the agora of the teucros, hidden by the horse that they carried dragging to the acropolis.
The horse was standing, and the teucros, sitting around him, said very confusing reasons and hesitated the choice of one of these three appearances; cleave the void with the cruel bronze, climb it to a height and despise it, or leave the great drill as a propitiative offering to the gods; this last resolution should prevail, because it was fatal that the city was ruined when it had that huge wooden horse.

He sang how the aqueos, coming out of the horse and leaving the hollow ambush, ravaged the city; he also sang how, scattered on one side and others on the other, they were devastating the excelsa urbe, while Odiseo, as if Ares, was taking the path of the house of Deífobo, together with the deiforme Menelao. And he said how he had dared to hold a terrible battle, of which Victoria reached for the magnanimous Athena.

Homer, Odyssey VIII, 490.

Later, when Odysseus himself is in Hades seeking Teiresias' advice on his return to Ithaca, he encounters the ghost of Achilles, to whom he speaks about his son, Neoptolemus:

And when the most courageous argives penetrated the horse that Epeo made and I was entrusted with everything—so the opening as the closing of the solid ambush—the warlords and princes of the Dana were rinsing their tears and shaking their limbs; but I never saw with these eyes that he moved the color of the beautiful face, nor did he let the tears go away.

Homer, Odyssey XI, 504-533.

Sinón is taken to Príamoengraved on the Vergilius Romanus.

Other ancient poets also made mention of the horse: Arctinus of Miletus, in his Iliupersis, and Lesques, in the Little Iliad, but their original works have been lost and only brief fragments and summaries survive in Proclus's Chrestomatia. An additional reference is found in Euripides' tragedy The Trojan Women, when Poseidon says:

The Epeo del Parnaso fired, by the arts of Palas, a henched horse of armed men and introduced the deadly image within the walls. From here he will receive among the men to come the name of a wooden horse, covert of hidden spears.

Euripides, The Trojans10.

However, the most detailed account is found in book II of Virgil's Aeneid. During the banquet, Aeneas tells Dido how it was that after the false withdrawal of the Greeks, seeing the deserted beach, the Trojans opened the city gates and brought in the enormous horse: Timetes had proposed to take it within the walls, but Capis and others feared a trap, reconsidering that the best thing would be to burn it, or at least find out what it had in its entrails. While the crowd was debating what to do, the priest Laocoon ran to the place to warn:

How great madness, poor citizens! Do you think he's gone from the enemy? Or do you think the dánaos can make untraped gifts? So we know Ulysses? Or enclosed in this hidden wood are the aqueos, or against our walls this machine has risen to spy our houses and fall on the city from above, or some other deception hides: teucros, do not trust the horse. Whatever it is, I fear the Danaos even offering present.

EneidaVirgilio, Book II.

Said this, he attacked the horse inserting a spear in order to destroy it. At this time he brought before Priam, king of Troy, a Greek prisoner whose name was Sinon, who allowed himself to be captured. Pretending that he was crying, he asked for asylum, claiming to be a runaway outlaw. The crowd was moved, the Greek rose and delivered a sly speech. He said that his poor father, without resources, had entrusted him to Palamades to educate him. However, due to the intrigues of Odysseus, Palamedes was accused of treason and assassinated. From then on, Sinón was continuously accused by Odysseus of crimes never committed. For all this, he swore revenge for both him and his guardian. Also, in a rhetorical gesture, he offers himself as a willing victim of Trojan wrath. Surprised, the people around him wanted to know more, and he related that the Greeks, tired of this lost battle, lifted the siege, but saw that their attempt to return was impeded by sea storms and signs in the skies. In order to know the will of the gods, they sent Eurypylus to consult an oracle. The answer he brought was that a human sacrifice similar to that which had been made before the start of the war was required in order to obtain favorable winds. After several days of silence, the soothsayer Calchas, in agreement with Odysseus, had announced that Sinon should be the sacrificial victim. He was bound and blindfolded for the bloody ritual but he was able to break the bonds and fled, until the Trojans found him. Once again, he claimed his innocence and asked for the enemy's mercy.

Recorded by Giovanni Battista Fontana where Laocoonte and his sons are seen being devoured by the snakes. At the bottom, you can see how the horse is taken into the city.

His performance was convincing and he was granted a pardon. He was released and received as one of them. The Trojans asked him for the reason for such a marvelous construction. To this Sinon responded by saying that he considered himself free from allegiance to his ancient homeland, invoking the gods as witnesses, and cursing the Greeks, adding that the horse had been built by express order of Athena, as compensation for the desecration of palladium. Trojan, an image dedicated to the goddess and stolen by Odysseus and Diomedes, a crime for which they were convinced they would not win the war. In addition, it was built so that it could not, due to its size, pass through the city gates, so that it would never be taken by the Trojans, thus becoming a new palladium. If that happened, the Greeks would know divine revenge, and Troy, glory.

On the other hand, Laocoon sacrificed a bull to Neptune, when two monstrous serpents emerged from Tenedos and killed the priest and his two sons and then took refuge in the temple of Athena. Terrified, the Trojans saw the prodigy as a sign from heaven and believed that the goddess had punished them for desecrating the offering with the spear. Nothing more was needed for the Trojans to believe the story of Sinon, so they made a breach in the wall and took the horse to the city amid great celebrations. Cassandra prophesied the imminent catastrophe, but her destiny was to tell the truth without being believed. Late at night, while the Trojans slept, Sinon unleashed his horse, his companions went out to kill the guards, and gave a signal to the army hidden in Tenedos, whose members returned, invaded the city, sacked and burned it, in the midst of the massacre of its inhabitants.

The story has been repeated with variations by late writers such as Quintus of Smyrna, Hyginus, and Juan Tzetzes. Apollodorus also gives other details: he attributes the idea of building the horse to Odysseus, to Apollo the sending of the snakes, as well as an inscription that the horse itself carried: «On their return to their homeland, the Greeks dedicate this horse to Athena». Trifiodorus, in The Capture of Ilion, left the longest and most elaborate version known, narrating endless details of both the construction and the appearance of the horse, which, according to what he narrates, was a impressive work of art, endowed with beauty and grace, which aroused the admiration of the Trojans. His harness was adorned with purple, gold and ivory, his eyes were surrounded by precious stones, and his mouth with white teeth gave rise to an open channel for internal ventilation, so that the warriors would not die of suffocation. The body was powerful, and curved like a ship, while its tail fell to the ground covered in long braids. The bronze helmets, with wheels, supported the legs that seemed to move. So beautiful and terrifying was the creation that Ares would not hesitate to ride it if he were alive. To keep the men nourished and not fail at the decisive moment, Athena gave them ambrosia.

Other late authors, however, offered completely different accounts of the story than the traditional one. Dion of Prusa, in a speech in which he defended the thesis that the true winners of the war had been the Trojans, said that the horse had been an authentic offering from the Greeks to the Trojan Athena during the peace negotiations and that it was not there were soldiers inside, but he agrees that the Trojans had to tear down part of the walls to introduce it into the city and that is why it was said that a horse had taken the city. On the other hand, for Dares Phrygian, the horse was nothing more than a statue that was sculpted on the Scaea gate and that was the one that some Trojans, traitors to their homeland, opened for the Greek army to enter.

Men hiding inside the horse

Wooden monument of the Trojan Horse in the ruins of the historic city of Troy, Turkey.

Trojan horse that was used in the film, given by Warner Bros. to the city of Çanakkale, Turkey.

Classical sources give numerous versions about the number and identity of the warriors who hid inside the horse. Apollodorus puts the figure at fifty, but then adds that the author of the Little Iliad, a lost poem, claimed that there were three thousand (although it could be an error in the codices). According to Tzetzes there were twenty-three; Quintus of Smyrna gives thirty names and adds that there were even more and other authors mention other names. The compilation of the members named by the various authors includes the following warriors:

Interpretations

Although the Trojan War may have occurred, some scholars consider the historical core of the legend to be very small. Regarding the famous horse, the way it was described by the ancients is likely to be only an invention, but there is also the possibility that there was some real apparatus capriciously transformed by tradition. In ancient times, the term horse referred to a war machine, the battering ram, often built in the shape of an animal. In fact, the Assyrians used these types of weapons and it is very possible that the example was taken by the Greeks. It was also interpreted as a metaphor for an earthquake, one of the possible causes pointed out for the destruction of historical Troy, considering that Poseidon was the god of horses, the ocean and earthquakes.

Another suggestion is that the horse was actually a ship, and it was noted that the terms used to put the men inside were the same as those described during the boarding of the crew on the ship. classical tradition, ships are often referred to as "sea horses". In the Odyssey, Penelope, lamenting the absence of Telemachus, says: «Why did my son leave me? What did one have to do to travel in the pointed-prowed ships that are to men like horses in the sea?" (the sea) on a wooden horse (ship)".

Iconography and popular culture

Relieve Assyrian that represents a war machine siding a walled city, 865-860 a. C.

One of the oldest representations of the Trojan horse is found on the so-called Mykonos Vase, dating from the 15th century VII a. Other Archaic creations include a bronze fibula from Boeotia and pottery shards from Athens and Tinos that are similar in design and may have been based on much earlier prototypes, such as Assyrian war apparatus, which they had wheels and windows and had a zoomorphic and quadrupedal design. Warriors stood in the center of the machine and used its elevated head to scale walls, while others wielded a battering ram at the bottom.

The motif became popular in classical Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman art, being found in innumerable variants on vases, reliefs, jewelry, and paintings, including "illuminated," as in the manuscript Vergilius Romanus. In Athens, there was a gigantic bronze statue of the famous horse, the work of Strongilion, installed in the sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia on the acropolis, in which several warriors were represented inside, of which the pedestal still survives, while Polignoto painted it in a large mural in the Stoa Pecile.

The entrance of the horse in Troy, painting by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, 1773. National Gallery of London.

Throughout the following centuries, the Trojan horse continued to provide inspiration to many artists and writers, constituting one of the most worked themes of the epic tradition, expanding, even, in Asian regions such as Arabia and the north from India, which were subject to classical influence. Paul Barolsky considers it "the ancestor" of all equestrian monuments. Among the most recognized authors who left works on it, are Livio Andrónico, Nevio, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Giulio Romano and Lovis Corinth. It also continued to be a theme for contemporary artists and writers around the world, including Christopher Morley, Archibald MacLeish, George Nick, Christopher Wool, Willie Bester, Heri Dono, Marcos Ramírez ERRE, Epaminondas Papadopoulos, Charles Juhasz, and named a group of Puerto Rican artists involved in social activism. Trojan Horse is the title of a series nine book os written by Juan José Benítez that achieved considerable international success.

In the 17th century, the Englishman John Bushnell wanted to make a hypothetical reconstruction of the horse, which would be so big that six men sitting around a table would fit inside its head, but it was destroyed by a storm before completion. Another was created in 1707 for a lavish presentation of a play by Elkanah Settle, measuring about 5m (16ft) tall, completely golden and from where forty armed warriors would come out. Currently, there are several modern "Trojan horses" in the world, with multiple appearances. Among them we can mention the one in Çanakkale, created for the Troy movie, by Wolfgang Petersen, the one in Prague, the one in the Caesars Palace hotel shopping center in Las Vegas and the one located on the border between Mexico and the United States. United.

The expression "Trojan horse" has become very popular in today's culture, always with the meaning of a cunning, deceptive and dangerous device, which enables covert penetration into enemy territory and is the origin of the expression "a Greek present", when something pleasant in appearance is received that may produce consequences. He names a negotiation technique based on lying, a deceptive military strategy used in many armies since ancient times, and a type of Malicious computer software that disguises itself as a legitimate program in order to gain access to users' machines and initiate the destruction of installed programs, as well as steal passwords and operate data of other natures. It has also been the subject of jokes and cartoons. as well as toys for children.

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